### Please describe the problem.

Here is a reproducer using the place where I encountered it -- using git-annex-remote-rclone (tiny bash script; needs fixing though for recent rclone -- take from [my fork where I am tuning testing etc](https://github.com/yarikoptic/git-annex-remote-rclone/blob/enh-tests/git-annex-remote-rclone)) [https://github.com/DanielDent/git-annex-remote-rclone/](https://github.com/DanielDent/git-annex-remote-rclone/)

<details>
<summary>this is a reproducer which creates repo and commits to annex of size 0</summary> 

```bash
#!/bin/bash

cd "$(mktemp -d ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/dl-XXXXXXX)"

set -eux

# provide versioning information to possibly ease troubleshooting
git annex version
rclone --version

export HOME=$PWD
echo -e '[local]\ntype = local\nnounc =' > ~/.rclone.conf
# to pacify git/git-annex
git config --global user.name Me
git config --global user.email me@example.com
git config --global init.defaultBranch master

# Prepare rclone remote local store
mkdir rclone-local
export RCLONE_PREFIX=$PWD/rclone-local

git-annex version
mkdir testrepo
cd testrepo
git init .
git-annex init
git-annex initremote GA-rclone-CI type=external externaltype=rclone target=local prefix=$RCLONE_PREFIX chunk=100MiB encryption=shared mac=HMACSHA512

# Rudimentary test, spaces in the filename must be ok, 0 length files should be ok

touch "test 0"

#echo 1 > "test 1"

git-annex add *
git-annex copy * --to GA-rclone-CI
git-annex drop *
git-annex get --debug *

```
</details> 

where it ends with

```
+ git-annex get --debug 'test 0'
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.668338168] (Utility.Process) process [1022440] read: git ["--git-dir=.git","--work-tree=.","--literal-pathspecs","-c","annex.debug=true","ls-files","--stage","-z","--error-unmatch","--","test 0"]
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.668784836] (Utility.Process) process [1022441] chat: git ["--git-dir=.git","--work-tree=.","--literal-pathspecs","-c","annex.debug=true","cat-file","--batch-check=%(objectname) %(objecttype) %(objectsize)","--buffer"]
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.669111286] (Utility.Process) process [1022442] chat: git ["--git-dir=.git","--work-tree=.","--literal-pathspecs","-c","annex.debug=true","cat-file","--batch=%(objectname) %(objecttype) %(objectsize)","--buffer"]
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.66965775] (Utility.Process) process [1022443] read: git ["--git-dir=.git","--work-tree=.","--literal-pathspecs","-c","annex.debug=true","show-ref","git-annex"]
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.670318546] (Utility.Process) process [1022443] done ExitSuccess
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.67074703] (Utility.Process) process [1022444] read: git ["--git-dir=.git","--work-tree=.","--literal-pathspecs","-c","annex.debug=true","show-ref","--hash","refs/heads/git-annex"]
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.671504449] (Utility.Process) process [1022444] done ExitSuccess
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.672125442] (Utility.Process) process [1022445] read: git ["--git-dir=.git","--work-tree=.","--literal-pathspecs","-c","annex.debug=true","log","refs/heads/git-annex..0da4aa78e4397feb9906400d1e08aaebccac1be1","--pretty=%H","-n1"]
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.673019668] (Utility.Process) process [1022445] done ExitSuccess
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.673440353] (Utility.Process) process [1022446] chat: git ["--git-dir=.git","--work-tree=.","--literal-pathspecs","-c","annex.debug=true","cat-file","--batch=%(objectname) %(objecttype) %(objectsize)","--buffer"]
get test 0 [2022-06-09 13:16:20.674594171] (Utility.Process) process [1022448] chat: git ["--git-dir=.git","--work-tree=.","--literal-pathspecs","-c","annex.debug=true","cat-file","--batch"]
(from GA-rclone-CI...) 
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.682205613] (Annex.Perms) freezing content directory .git/annex/objects/pX/ZJ/SHA256E-s0--e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855

git-annex: .git/annex/tmp/SHA256E-s0--e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855: rename: does not exist (No such file or directory)
failed
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.682296739] (Utility.Process) process [1022446] done ExitSuccess
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.682333234] (Utility.Process) process [1022442] done ExitSuccess
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.682384256] (Utility.Process) process [1022441] done ExitSuccess
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.682408227] (Utility.Process) process [1022440] done ExitSuccess
[2022-06-09 13:16:20.682701178] (Utility.Process) process [1022448] done ExitSuccess
get: 1 failed

```

- you can see that there is not even an attempt to talk to the remote. git-annex crashes before then with that " rename: does not exist (No such file or directory)"

so I do not think it is an issue of the remote (which might also have some size 0 issues from looking at some conditions)


### What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?


tried both 8.20211123 and  10.20220504 from debian 

> [[fixed|done]] --[[Joey]]
